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Information and Self-Organization

A Macroscopic Approach to Complex Systems

  • Book
  • © 1988

Overview

Authors:
  1. Hermann Haken

    1. Institut für Theoretische Physik und Synergetik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart 80, Fed. Rep. of Germany
      Center for Complex Systems, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Synergetics (SSSYN)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XII
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  2. The Challenge of Complex Systems

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 1-35

  3. From the Microscopic to the Macroscopic World

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 36-52

  4. ... and Back Again: The Maximum Information Principle (MIP)

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 53-64

  5. An Example from Physics: Thermodynamics

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 65-68

  6. Application of the Maximum Information Principle to Self-Organizing Systems

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 69-73

  7. The Maximum Information Principle for Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions: Determination of Order Parameters, Enslaved Modes, and Emerging Patterns

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 74-80

  8. Information, Information Gain, and Efficiency of Self-Organizing Systems Close to Their Instability Points

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 81-114

  9. Direct Determination of Lagrange Multipliers

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 115-124

  10. Unbiased Modeling of Stochastic Processes: How to Guess Path Integrals, Fokker-Planck Equations and Langevin-Îto Equations

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 125-134

  11. Application to Some Physical Systems

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 135-139

  12. Transitions Between Behavioral Patterns in Biology. An Example: Hand Movements

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 140-152

  13. Pattern Recognition

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 153-168

  14. Quantum Systems

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 169-181

  15. Concluding Remarks and Outlook

    • Hermann Haken
    Pages 182-183

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 187-196
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Keywords

About this book

Complex systems are ubiquitous, and practically all branches of science ranging from physics through chemistry and biology to economics and sociology have to deal with them. In this book we wish to present concepts and methods for dealing with complex systems from a unifying point of view. Therefore it may be of inter­ est to graduate students, professors and research workers who are concerned with theoretical work in the above-mentioned fields. The basic idea for our unified ap­ proach sterns from that of synergetics. In order to find unifying principles we shall focus our attention on those situations where a complex system changes its macroscopic behavior qualitatively, or in other words, where it changes its macroscopic spatial, temporal or functional structure. Until now, the theory of synergetics has usually begun with a microscopic or mesoscopic description of a complex system. In this book we present an approach which starts out from macroscopic data. In particular we shall treat systems that acquire their new structure without specific interference from the outside; i. e. systems which are self-organizing. The vehicle we shall use is information. Since this word has several quite different meanings, all of which are important for our purpose, we shall discuss its various aspects. These range from Shannon information, from which all semantics has been exorcised, to the effects of information on receivers and the self-creation of meaning.

Reviews

From the reviews of the third edition:

"This enlarged edition of Information and Self-Organization addresses the concept of information in depth: ranging ‘from Shannon information, from which all semantics has been exorcised, to the effects of information on receivers and the self-creation of meaning’—that is, toward semantic information … . Nevertheless, both the qualitative lessons and quantitative analysis presented in the book … very useful for artificial life researchers." (Mikhail Prokopenko, Artificial Life, Vol. 15, 2009)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik und Synergetik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart 80, Fed. Rep. of Germany

    Hermann Haken

  • Center for Complex Systems, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA

    Hermann Haken

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